


Mr. Bilbo's Acorn

by Carol_the_Dabbler



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (Movies), The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen, Side Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-16
Updated: 2016-07-16
Packaged: 2018-07-24 10:10:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7504309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carol_the_Dabbler/pseuds/Carol_the_Dabbler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Remember the acorn that Bilbo Baggins picked up in Beorn's garden?  Many years later, Sam Gamgee tells his children what became of it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mr. Bilbo's Acorn

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to Caya and Arcadia, who suggested some of the best parts.

Bag End itself hadn't actually changed, of course, since the days when it was home to the Baggins family. It merely looked different because it was now the home of Sam and Rose Gamgee and their twelve (soon to be thirteen) children. Not even when Bilbo entertained his young cousins had there been such an assortment of toys in the parlor -- not to mention the assortment of young hobbits: boys and girls, big and little, some with brown hair and some with golden curls.  
  
"Tell us a story, Dad!"  
  
Sam sat in his cozy chair by the fire, puffing on his pipe. Rose, beside him with baby Robin cradled in her arms, murmured "... please," and her daughter echoed "Please, Dad!" before Sam had the pipe out of his mouth.  
  
"What would you like to hear, Daisy?"  
  
Nearly a dozen young voices answered him from the hearthrug and from various nooks and corners, but the eight-year-old, accustomed to competition from her elder siblings, spoke up loud and clear: "Tell us about Mr. Bilbo's acorn." The dissension ceased at once, for it was a favorite story.  
  
"Well now, that goes back a ways, you know. Let me think." Sam puffed away quite deliberately on his pipe until the children began to shift in their seats. "You've all heard me say that Mr. Bilbo learned me my letters," he began. "But he was also a great one for telling stories. Some I reckon he'd heard, some I suppose he made up himself, but this one really happened."  
  
"How do you know it's real, Dad?"  
  
"Because it's simple, Frodo. I must say I've heard Mr. Bilbo fancy up a story, but this one ain't fancy. It started when Mr. Bilbo was on his way to the Lonely Mountain."  
  
"Dat where he kill dat dragon!"  
  
"Not exactly, Ruby. But he helped, that's for sure.". Sam puffed on his pipe for a moment. " Now where was I? Right. Mr. Bilbo was on his way East, and he stopped to visit a man named Beorn."  
  
"Was Beorn that giant?"  
  
"I don't think he was really a giant, Ham, but he was very tall.  The trees around his house were tall, too, and that's where Mr. Bilbo got his acorn."  
  
"But why would he want a silly old acorn?"  
  
"Well, here's what he told me, Goldie: He wanted it to remind him of his adventure, and how lucky he was to be back home safe and sound. That's why he carried it with him through Mirkwood, and to Lake Town and the Lonely Mountain, and through the big battle, and all the way home again. And when he got back, he planted it over there across the road in that big field. My own daddy, the Gaffer, helped him plant it."  
  
"Did you help him too, Dad?"  
  
"I wasn't born yet, Primrose. But many's the time the Gaffer told me about it. In the spring it sprouted right up, and by the time I was born, that tree was as tall as any hereabouts. When I was a big lad -- about your age, Ellie -- that's where Mr. Bilbo had his famous party, with Mr. Gandalf's fireworks and all, right there under that tree. That's why we called it the Party Tree for a good many years."  
  
Two voices chimed in together: "What happened then, Dad?"  
  
The next part of the story always made Sam feel so sad and angry that he rushed through it, to get back to the good part. "It was chopped down, Merry and Pippin, while Mr. Frodo and I were off in Mordor. But good can come of evil, they say. If a good man had chopped down that tree, he would have done it because he needed the firewood, and then it would have been all burnt up. But those men were so evil that they chopped down the Party Tree out of pure meanness and then just let it lay there. So there were acorns, you see, and I planted one where the old Party Tree had been."  
  
"But isn't that where the mallorn tree stands?"  
  
"That's what a lot of folks say, Rosebud. I even heard Mr. Frodo say it once or twice. But that's because it's the only mallorn tree in the Shire, so they notice it more. Those folks didn't plant the trees, did they? I planted that acorn as near as could be to the old stump, where I found a bit of good soil. And the mallorn nut I planted nearby, but far enough away that they'd both have room to grow. I put some of Galadriel's elven dust with each of them, so they sprang up good and proper. That's been only twenty years or so, and soon you'll hardly guess that it's not the old Party Tree there."  
  
"Can I have my birthday party under it, Dad?"  
  
"I can't think of a more fitting place for your party, Bilbo my lad," said Sam.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is a hopeless hodgepodge of Tolkien and Jackson, so if you're familiar with only one version or the other, some parts will be unfamiliar.


End file.
